MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
After researching the life of Jesus and the way He talked with people, I continued with the topic of love. As noted last week, His approach to the multitude was to share the love of God and introduce the Kingdom. Today we'll look at how He loved, and how that love was communicated to others. It may be easy to say, "I love you", but the proof is in the evidence.
Often we see Jesus' love communicated by actions rather than words. He was surrounded by people who needed love - children, prostitutes, tax collectors, a Pharisee who came by night, a Samaritan woman at a well. His followers included fishermen, Matthew the tax collector, Nathanael an honorable Israelite, and later Paul who persecuted Christians. Jesus spent days and nights teaching and listening, touching, healing those who were lame, blind, or unclean. He forgave sins - the paralytic, the woman caught in adultery. Even on the cross, he uttered, "'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing'" (Luke 23:34).
But we limit ourselves if we search just for "love". Another word used frequently is "compassion". In Matthew 9:36, Jesus was moved by compassion by the crowds because they were distressed and downcast. He felt compassion for another large crowd, as He taught and healed their sick (Matthew 14:14 and Mark 6:34). He was motivated by compassion before feeding 4,000 (Matthew 15:32). Compassion led Jesus to heal the blind in Matthew 20:34, to cleanse the leper in Mark 1:41, and to heal the widow's son in Luke 7:13. In the parables of Luke chapters 10 (the good Samaritan), and 15 (the prodigal), He encouraged compassion. In fact, many miracles and signs are demonstrations of His love.
The message of John 3:16 is "'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.'" He was described as loving the rich young ruler (Mark 10) and his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus (John 11). John in his gospel didn't use his own name but described himself as "the one whom Jesus loved" (John chapters 13 and 21).
Other instances of love recorded were during the Passion Week. John prefaced this section in 13:1, "'Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.'” The Greek word used here doesn't indicate "feelings"; rather, it is agape, meaning goodwill, or desiring the best for another person.
In John 14:21 and 23, Jesus talked of love, but with qualifiers: "'... he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him....'" and "'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word...'". In chapter 15 the same evening, His theme continued. "'If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love...'" (verses 9-10). Similarly, in verse 14, He said, "'You are My friends if you do what I command you.'" And verses 12 and 17 read, "'This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.'" In this same chapter, Jesus made a prophetic statement about Himself: "'Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends'" (verse 13).
Jesus not only issued the command to love; He also provided a powerful example by dying on the cross for us. The apostle Paul focused on this in Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In the same chapter, Paul mentioned that justification, peace, grace, hope, reconciliation, and salvation are all available through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
During the last discourse Jesus said: "'...the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me'" (John 16:27). He prayed to the Father in John17:23, 26: "'that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me....'" Love is between Father and Son, the Son and us, and between all who follow Jesus.
Paul personally experienced compelling love on the Damascus Road (Acts chapter 9), and his writings describe the love of Christ. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" After a long list, he concludes nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:31-39). "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). Paul ministered and wrote so that his readers would "know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).
Jesus, John, Paul and others spoke of love, which comes full circle in Revelation 1:5. There, John identifies Jesus as the One "...who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood." By His nature, God is love. Anyone who accepts Christ learns to love others and extend that to others, through ethical behavior based on love that wants the best for another person.
Next week, we plan to begin at least a three-part series on the Book of Revelation.
